1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a storage medium, and more particularly, to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a storage medium, which allow personal information of a user, such as a name, address, telephone number, and electronic mail address, to be recorded in an address table or the like and which also make it possible to easily control the access of another user to the personal information.
2. Description of the Related Art
A recent reduction in cost of information communication devices allows many users to record and mange personal information on an information communication device such as a portable telephone device, a computer, or a PDA (Personal Digital (Data) Assistant), wherein the personal information may include names, addresses, telephone numbers, and electronic mail addresses of users themselves and/or friends or acquaintances.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a communication system including such information communication devices.
In FIG. 1, computers 1 and 2 are connected to an in-house LAN (local area network) 12 in a certain company. The LAN 12 is connected to the Internet 11. Computers 3 and 4 are connected to an ISP (Internet service provider) 14 via a public telephone network 13 so that they can access the Internet 11. A portable telephone device 5 can access the Internet 11 via a portable telephone wireless network (including base stations and the like) 15.
The Internet 11 provides various services including an electronic mail (E-mail) service, whereby users of the computers 1 to 4 or the portable telephone device 5 can send an electronic mail to each other via the Internet 11.
An application program for sending/receiving electronic mails is generally called a mailer. In general, the mailer has a table, called an address table, for managing personal information. The address table is used by a user to record personal information such as names and electronic mail addresses of other users.
The recording of personal information into address tables has to be performed by respective users themselves. This job is troublesome for users.
Although the mailer has the capability of extracting the electronic mail address of the sender of a received electronic mail and recording the extracted electronic mail address in the address table, the other items of personal information such as a telephone number or a company name have to be input by a user.
Telephone devices such as a portable telephone device 5 has the capability of recording telephone numbers of other users into an address table by using the telephone number notification service provided by the ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network). However, even in this case, other items of personal information have to be input by the respective users of the telephone devices.
Thus, the object of the present invention is to solve the problems described above.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus which acquires personal information from an information providing apparatus serving to provide personal information of a user, by means of transmitting a keyword used to retrieve personal information to the information providing apparatus; requesting the information providing apparatus to retrieve personal information using the keyword; receiving personal information corresponding to the keyword from the information providing apparatus; and recording the personal information received from the information providing apparatus.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus which provides personal information of a user in response to a request issued by a client terminal in such a manner that when personal information described in a personal information database is updated, information as to updating of the personal information is provided to a client terminal which has issued, in the past, a request for retrieval of that personal information.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus which provides personal information of a user in response to a request issued by a client terminal, by means of receiving a request for personal information from the client terminal; determining whether providing of personal information requested by the client terminal is permitted or restricted, on the basis of permission/restriction information representing whether providing of the personal information is permitted or restricted; when the client terminal issues a request for personal information, if the providing of the personal information is not permitted or is restricted, inquiring of the owner of the personal information whether or not to give permission as to the providing of the personal information; and providing personal information to the client terminal when the owner of the personal information gives permission to provide the personal information.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus which acquires personal information of a user from an information providing apparatus serving to provide personal information of a user, by means of performing inquiry in such a manner that when a request is issued to the information providing apparatus to provide the personal information, if the providing of the personal information is not permitted or is restricted, a request is issued to the information providing means to inquire of the owner of the personal information whether or not to give permission as to the providing of said personal information.